You want to see a film with lots of naked old people??? Then The Lifestyle is for you. I had the pleasure to see this at the Seattle International Film Festival. This is a great crowd movie that is full of uproarious moments. All of the subjects have a very good sense of humor about the way they live, and this makes the film very enjoyable. Perhaps the strangest thing of all was that their lives were actually quite banal. That is, until they started the group sex! It gives whole new meaning to keeping "up" with the Joneses. Highly recommended!
8 Reviews
Interesting Film
stoveystovepipes23 November 2004
This film provided a number of reactions from me. Many similar to what's been expressed here already. Though I didn't really relate personally to many of the people followed in this documentary about "swinging", I couldn't help but be
impressed by their sincerity, good natured enthusiasm and seeming content
with their lives. The comments here about the old, flabby participants are quite different than the thoughts I had. Mine tended to revolve around how great it was that people could get to that age and still have wild, exciting sex lives, that were fulfilling and fun. And all within the confines of a committed marriage. Let's face it, none of us are getting any younger. What age or physical shape will be your cutoff point for sex because you find it disgusting?
impressed by their sincerity, good natured enthusiasm and seeming content
with their lives. The comments here about the old, flabby participants are quite different than the thoughts I had. Mine tended to revolve around how great it was that people could get to that age and still have wild, exciting sex lives, that were fulfilling and fun. And all within the confines of a committed marriage. Let's face it, none of us are getting any younger. What age or physical shape will be your cutoff point for sex because you find it disgusting?
Hilarious,unbiased look at an alternative lifestyle. SPOILER!!
blackxmas18 February 2001
Warning: Spoilers
An extremely well-made documentary about swinging. Surprisingly graphic and frequently amusing, this ode to wife-swapping is chock full of normal,everyday people who cheerfully talk about their passion for multiple partners. From back-yard BBQ's to full scale conventions, these low key, yet refreshingly eccentric free spirits win the viewer over and over again with what seems to be a healthy attitude towards sex. The vibe of the film is on par with the classic documentary WONDERLAND, another Good Machine production. Highly Recommended.
Let's drop the formalities
ScottPJones28 November 2003
I picked up the DVD of the Lifestyle on a whim a while back. I had no idea how big a treat i was in for. I don't know how many fans you need for a film to get a "Cult Classic" status but with me and my buddies this may be the number 1. The Chinese Guy Is AWESOME! If you get a chance to see this you will probably be horrified at times but the great outweighs the bad. So, let's get past the formalities and PARTY!!!!
haven't seen it
scottyd277 June 2007
OK to the poster, Obviously you are not in the lifestyle. What do you think people do at a swing club? there's a lot more goes on than humping like rabbits. Most lifestyle clubs are like any other night club you might attend in the front areas. dancing, drinking, flirting etc. People converse about many subjects, we talk about our jobs, or likes dislikes our spouses and just about anything else you can think of.
Not all lifestyle participants are "beautiful 20 something people". The looks and ages of people are as varied as they are in any vanilla club with the exception (maybe) of some girls naked, which i have also seen in vanilla clubs. What people find is there is someone for everyone. Any clubs we've attended aren't not a free for all screw fest. you better ask permission before you do anything with anyone and you better respect a couples limits and relationship, you don't play grab ass on the dance floor without having permission.
What you'll also find, at lifestyle clubs is a lot more respect for each other and people actually talk TO you not AT you. My wife can go off to the bathroom at the club we attend and I don't have to worry about her being grouped, grabbed or molested, I can't say the same for the vanilla clubs i've attended. People also respect your relationship. Most men at a lifestyle club won't approach my wife until he talks to me and the same applies to me and their wives.
I have not seen this film, I was looking for information on it before i bought it. But i couldn't help commenting on your misinterpretation of the lifestyle.
For the record, I am a conservative republican, I have a very good day job, and this is a part of my life that is foreplay for my wife and I>
Not all lifestyle participants are "beautiful 20 something people". The looks and ages of people are as varied as they are in any vanilla club with the exception (maybe) of some girls naked, which i have also seen in vanilla clubs. What people find is there is someone for everyone. Any clubs we've attended aren't not a free for all screw fest. you better ask permission before you do anything with anyone and you better respect a couples limits and relationship, you don't play grab ass on the dance floor without having permission.
What you'll also find, at lifestyle clubs is a lot more respect for each other and people actually talk TO you not AT you. My wife can go off to the bathroom at the club we attend and I don't have to worry about her being grouped, grabbed or molested, I can't say the same for the vanilla clubs i've attended. People also respect your relationship. Most men at a lifestyle club won't approach my wife until he talks to me and the same applies to me and their wives.
I have not seen this film, I was looking for information on it before i bought it. But i couldn't help commenting on your misinterpretation of the lifestyle.
For the record, I am a conservative republican, I have a very good day job, and this is a part of my life that is foreplay for my wife and I>
the mundanity of sex
MitchellXL529 June 2003
A very good documentary that illustrates one more instance where anything -literally ANYTHING - can be turned into a very geeky, boring pursuit when it is taken to heart by people lacking in imagination.
This film taught me one thing in particular: I wouldn't want to attend a pot luck party with any of these people even without the sex part. The conversation alone would kill me. The sex part would just be dancing on my grave.
This film taught me one thing in particular: I wouldn't want to attend a pot luck party with any of these people even without the sex part. The conversation alone would kill me. The sex part would just be dancing on my grave.
Entertaining
newnoir10 March 2003
Ahem! I had a number of reactions after seeing this film. At first I thought it was a well made, funny, highly interesting documentary. And I also was reminded of Marlon Brando's dying words from Apocalypse Now, "The horror, the horror...".
This is a film about a certainly intriguing subject: swingers. Those who believe in free love, being libertines, getting it on like dogs in heat, etcetera. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with having a healthy attitude towards sexuality. If it feels good, and it's legal, do it.
But did the filmmakers go out of their way to find the oldest, ugliest, most flabby and repulsive bunch of swingers on Earth? If you're gonna make a film about swingers, try and find a few attractive ones. Ones that goto the gym, eat right, read a book once in a while. Some swingers in their twenties, thirties and forties. Not a bunch of people who are so old they've got BOTH feet in the grave! And if I thought the women were ugly in this film, the men were hideous! As Mr. T might have said, "I pity the fool who has to get it on with these swingers!".
The film does not judge these swingers. It just give them plenty of rope to hang themselves. And show their lives to be empty, sad, dreary, and dead, with the exception of these depressing sex parties they attend. This film is the best proponent of family values and monogamy that any hard right conservative could ever hope for. If you have a partner who is thinking of trying some swinging, show them this film and they will put those desires to rest for good.
A word to these swingers in this film: get your arses to the gym! Lay off the bad foods, have a little self-respect! If you are gonna walk around naked that much, try buffing up just a bit. I'm not in the best shape but I felt like I had the body of Brad Pitt compared to these people. There is a closeup on a slab of barbecued meat after one of these so called orgies these swingers have. That slab of meat sums up how these swingers treat each other, like pieces of meat.
And man, they have the most mundane and idiotic conversations! About trivial moronic things like what brand of charcoal burns the best, how to make a great cup of homemade coffee, inane crap like that. There are other things in life to discuss. Like film, news, television, music, books, current events. If you were gonna be on camera wouldn't you want to at least appear to have a faint glimmer of intelligence? Not in these swingers cases.
The cliché about swingers is that they are old, ugly, out of shape, gross, sleazy people. I'll be damned if this film didn't live up to all those stereotypes and then some. Another weird thing about swingers is that statistically more Republicans goto swing clubs than Democrats. How weird is that? What, do they listen to conservative talk radio all day at work and then head off to bang each other's wives and husbands at the Hokey Pokey Swing Club down on Maple street?
In the deleted scenes on the DVD there are two swingers who are frighteningly revolting. A man and woman, over the hill, no, at the bottom of the hill, not just over it, and they are sitting on a couch looking at each other and they do this weird thing where they shiver and shake lasciviously as they look into each other's eyes. You'll have to see the film to know what I mean. When you do you will have seen the two sleaziest people in the history of film. Even the characters in John Waters' Pink Flamingos can't come close to being as tacky as those two.
And this one dude Wild Bill who runs the Panther Palace swing club (they interview him) is so old he's on death's door. Anyway, this guy brags about how well endowed he is because he HANGS WEIGHTS off his genitals. Ya know, with age is supposed to come wisdom. And I understand some people don't ever wanna grown up, but there comes a time when you reach a certain age that you should realize that you're too friggin' old to be dangling weights off your wang danger! Leave that for the forty year olds, 'kay? This poor guy Wild Bill seems very very lonely. He's in his seventies and he's sleeping on a couch in his swing club. I imagine he's having more fun than a lot of people his age, but still sleeping on a rickety old couch when you're a septuagenarian? Get a nice one bedroom condo instead.
But despite all that, this is a good film. Funny and interesting. You can live a happy life never ever seeing this film though. It is an entertaining freak show. Just throw in some cute swingers next time. Dig?
This is a film about a certainly intriguing subject: swingers. Those who believe in free love, being libertines, getting it on like dogs in heat, etcetera. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with having a healthy attitude towards sexuality. If it feels good, and it's legal, do it.
But did the filmmakers go out of their way to find the oldest, ugliest, most flabby and repulsive bunch of swingers on Earth? If you're gonna make a film about swingers, try and find a few attractive ones. Ones that goto the gym, eat right, read a book once in a while. Some swingers in their twenties, thirties and forties. Not a bunch of people who are so old they've got BOTH feet in the grave! And if I thought the women were ugly in this film, the men were hideous! As Mr. T might have said, "I pity the fool who has to get it on with these swingers!".
The film does not judge these swingers. It just give them plenty of rope to hang themselves. And show their lives to be empty, sad, dreary, and dead, with the exception of these depressing sex parties they attend. This film is the best proponent of family values and monogamy that any hard right conservative could ever hope for. If you have a partner who is thinking of trying some swinging, show them this film and they will put those desires to rest for good.
A word to these swingers in this film: get your arses to the gym! Lay off the bad foods, have a little self-respect! If you are gonna walk around naked that much, try buffing up just a bit. I'm not in the best shape but I felt like I had the body of Brad Pitt compared to these people. There is a closeup on a slab of barbecued meat after one of these so called orgies these swingers have. That slab of meat sums up how these swingers treat each other, like pieces of meat.
And man, they have the most mundane and idiotic conversations! About trivial moronic things like what brand of charcoal burns the best, how to make a great cup of homemade coffee, inane crap like that. There are other things in life to discuss. Like film, news, television, music, books, current events. If you were gonna be on camera wouldn't you want to at least appear to have a faint glimmer of intelligence? Not in these swingers cases.
The cliché about swingers is that they are old, ugly, out of shape, gross, sleazy people. I'll be damned if this film didn't live up to all those stereotypes and then some. Another weird thing about swingers is that statistically more Republicans goto swing clubs than Democrats. How weird is that? What, do they listen to conservative talk radio all day at work and then head off to bang each other's wives and husbands at the Hokey Pokey Swing Club down on Maple street?
In the deleted scenes on the DVD there are two swingers who are frighteningly revolting. A man and woman, over the hill, no, at the bottom of the hill, not just over it, and they are sitting on a couch looking at each other and they do this weird thing where they shiver and shake lasciviously as they look into each other's eyes. You'll have to see the film to know what I mean. When you do you will have seen the two sleaziest people in the history of film. Even the characters in John Waters' Pink Flamingos can't come close to being as tacky as those two.
And this one dude Wild Bill who runs the Panther Palace swing club (they interview him) is so old he's on death's door. Anyway, this guy brags about how well endowed he is because he HANGS WEIGHTS off his genitals. Ya know, with age is supposed to come wisdom. And I understand some people don't ever wanna grown up, but there comes a time when you reach a certain age that you should realize that you're too friggin' old to be dangling weights off your wang danger! Leave that for the forty year olds, 'kay? This poor guy Wild Bill seems very very lonely. He's in his seventies and he's sleeping on a couch in his swing club. I imagine he's having more fun than a lot of people his age, but still sleeping on a rickety old couch when you're a septuagenarian? Get a nice one bedroom condo instead.
But despite all that, this is a good film. Funny and interesting. You can live a happy life never ever seeing this film though. It is an entertaining freak show. Just throw in some cute swingers next time. Dig?
More disgusting than Jackass
jbels30 January 2003
This is pretty weak as docs go, meant to illicit laughs when it's either trying to hard or just dull. I was ready for it to be over when the full assault of the uncut swinger party was shown and you see things that you wish you'd never had.
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